China Town My China Town (1910)...Jean Schwartz.

[Steve Harrison]

This is another of my favourite early popular songs. As with my previous offering, Margie, it was a staple in the repertoire of most of the jazz bands I used to listen to when younger. The front cover appropriately shows a Chinese lady playing the San Xian, sometimes called the Chinese banjo. It's a full song arrangement with lyrics added and it's not too hard to play, the melody is played on the third string throughout. The score and midi are in the library...Steve.

[Jody Stecher]

It is an artist's careless impression of a sanxian, akin to the many anatomically bizarre renditions of a banjo that have been painted and drawn over the years. "San" means 3 and "xian" means "strings".  I have seen and (sort of)  played many sanxians. They always have 3 strings and therefore 3 pegs. This is remarkable because the Persian Setar whose name also means "three strings" has 4 strings and the Indian sitar. which also means "three strings" has many strings (it varies). But sanxian, like its Japanese cognate the shamisen, never has less or more than 3 strings.  The strings are silk!   It has vellums. If one of the heads bursts, the neck can loosened quickly and the sound box is flipped around, the neck secured again and in less than 3 minutes you've got a playable banjo again.